Ancient
Egypt
IV.
People and Society
A. Population
The population of ancient Egypt varied greatly
during its history. Some scholars estimate that only a few
hundred thousand people lived in Egypt during the Predynastic
period (about 5000-3000 BC). Others believe, based on
archaeological evidence and reevaluations of how many people
the floodplains could support at the time, that the area
had a much higher population. In any case, the population
had probably risen to close to 2 million during the Old
Kingdom (about 2575-2134 BC). It increased during the
Middle Kingdom (about 2040-1640 BC), and by the New
Kingdom (about 1550-1070 BC) the population had grown
to between 3 and 4 million. This figure almost doubled under
Hellenistic rule (332-30 BC), with perhaps as many as 7
million people inhabiting the country at the time it was
annexed to the Roman Empire.
Egypt's
increasing population could only have been sustained if
the land and the economy could support it. As agricultural
techniques became increasingly more efficient, the Egyptians
developed systems to deal with fluctuations in the height
of the annual flood of the Nile. Early on, they also learned
the value of maintaining order both at home and externally,
for peaceful conditions helped promote a good economy. Moreover,
by the Middle Kingdom, they had learned to reclaim previously
unused and unusable land for agricultural purposes. Each
period brought growth in the populations of existing cities
and the founding of new cities. As Egypt extended its borders
and took control of external areas, populations began to
shift. In the New Kingdom, captives, slaves, and immigrants
entered the country. During the periods when foreign rulers
controlled Egypt, such as the Second Intermediate Period
(about 1640-1550 BC) and the Third Intermediate Period
(1070-712 BC), people from those rulers' home areas added
to the growing melting pot in Egypt.
Egyptian
society was confined almost exclusively to the Nile Valley
and Delta. Most settlements were located on or close to
the banks of the Nile. Since ancient Egypt was an agricultural
society, its densest population was on the floodplains.
Only a small fraction of the population lived in cities
and towns. Major cities contained most of the urban population,
and the ranks of major cities changed over time. Centers
such as Memphis, Thebes, and certain provincial capitals,
however, maintained their importance for extremely long
periods of time. A major city generally had a densely populated
center, and the density of population decreased as distance
from the center increased.
B.
Social Structure
For all their numbers and quality, the architectural monuments,
statues, jewelry, and elaborate burial places of ancient
Egypt reveal only a small part of Egyptian society. Much
of what the early excavators uncovered and much of what
appears in museums and popular publications today relates
only to the ruling elite, the highest of several levels
of society in ancient Egypt. Different social classes existed
even in the earliest cities. Scholars who study mummies
and their burials have noticed class differences in terms
of the type and quantity of grave goods, the quality of
a tomb's construction and decoration, the technique of preservation
used on the mummy, and the physical condition of the body.
Some cemeteries had areas that were restricted for certain
classes of burial. Apparently several levels of mummification
existed. The way a mummy was preserved and wrapped, its
age, the types of disease the person may have had, and the
condition of the teeth also indicate the existence of different
social strata.
Urban
archaeology, or the examination of town sites, also establishes
the existence of different social classes. The sizes of
houses differed among the various classes. Some towns even
zoned different areas for residential and commercial use.
For
much of its existence, ancient Egyptian society probably
had at least three social levels. Each of these had further
subdivisions. At the highest level were the royalty and
high administrative officials. Within this level, but considered
a bit lower, were the provincial nobility and officials.
The second level, a sort of middle class, consisted of many
lower-level members of the bureaucracy, certain priests,
very high-ranking scribes, officers of the army, wealthy
landowners, and exceptional artisans. The lowest class was
the largest. In it were low-ranking bureaucrats, scribes,
craftspeople, priests, and farmers. Within this level, but
even lower, were servants, serfs, and laborers. Slaves,
mostly captured enemies and their families, made up the
lowest rung of the social ladder.
Class
distinctions are also indicated in “The Satire on Trades,”
a Middle Kingdom text that extols the roles and life of
a scribe while eschewing most other professions. Since some
offices were hereditary, it was difficult for individuals
to be socially mobile, or to rise to a higher class. Nevertheless,
biographical texts that the elite often had inscribed on
the walls of their tomb chapels sometimes recount an individual's
rise in the administration during the course of a career.
C.
Way of Life
In ancient Egypt the family was important. Its importance
is demonstrated in part through the many references to the
family in a variety of texts and documents, numerous depictions
of it in statues and paintings, and the large number of
familial relationships among the gods and goddesses. A representation
of an elite family, with a father, a mother, and children,
usually portrays the father as the largest figure, and therefore
the most important. The mother, who is generally smaller,
stands or sits beside him, and the two often embrace or
hold hands. Children, if at all present, are much smaller
and off to the side. Representations of royalty are more
formal, depicting the pharaoh and his wife or, rarely, the
pharaoh and his son. During the reign of Akhenaton, however,
the pharaoh and his wife appear with their daughters.
As
the head of the household, the father worked outside
the home. His wife ran the domestic operations. In wealthy
families, the wife's authority extended over a staff
of servants, while in poorer ones, she participated directly
in chores such as preparing food and making clothes. In
the lowest classes women sometimes worked outside the home,
but depictions limit such work mainly to farm labor in the
fields. The role of women as mothers was essential. Although
unequal to men in other areas, in the eyes of the law, women
were treated the same and could, for example, own property,
conduct business, and file lawsuits.
Children
were expected to care properly for and support their parents
during old age. They were also responsible for giving their
parents a proper burial and for maintaining a mortuary cult,
both of which were considered necessary for ensuring the
afterlife of their parents. Contact between the living and
the dead took place through ancestor cults within the home
and through visits to a funerary chapel. Apparently, it
was believed that those in one domain could provide benefit
or cause harm for those in the other, as illustrated in
the “Letters to the Dead.” In such correspondence the living
sought assistance from departed relatives for various problems
and situations. (For more information about the Egyptians'
belief in the afterlife, see the Religion and the Afterlife
section of this article.)
Pharaohs
sometimes had more than one wife, a practice that was adopted
apparently to guarantee an heir. However, one spouse was
the general rule in ancient Egypt, at least in the earlier
periods. Straying from a marriage was not condoned. By the
time of the Old Kingdom, adultery was considered an impure
act, and it became one of the few acceptable reasons for
divorce. Couples who established households together generally
remained together, and sometimes they had written contracts
specifying particular financial arrangements. These contracts
were similar in many ways to today's prenuptial agreements.
The
houses of the ancient Egyptians varied in style, shape,
and size, depending on factors such as the wealth of the
owner and the location of the house. Houses in cities tended
to be smaller, taller, and more clustered together than
were rural residences. The residences on the estates of
the elite were large and might contain more than two dozen
rooms. The dwellings of professionals or craftspeople in
the same occupation were sometimes located in the same area
in a city.
The
Egyptians used many types of wooden furniture, including
tables, chairs, stools, chests, and beds. They wore linen
garments, woven from flax, and occasionally crafted some
clothing from animal skins. They ate a variety of fruits
(grapes, figs, and dates, for example), vegetables (tubers,
leaves, and seeds), and grains (wheat and barley). Occasionally
they also dined on fish, fowl, or game, and they drank water,
beer, wine, and milk. For the most part they used pottery
dishes and vessels, but wealthier people used ware made
from stone, copper, bronze, gold, or—less commonly—silver.
For sport, the ancient Egyptians apparently went fishing
and hunted birds. They also enjoyed boating, listening to
music, watching dance performances, and playing board games.
D.
Education and Writing
Education and writing were interdependent in ancient Egypt.
Literacy was the first step in attaining knowledge. However,
reading and writing were limited to a small number of people,
primarily the elite, the scribes, and those entering the
upper levels of the bureaucracy. Children of royalty and
the wealthy were educated at the palace. Children of other
people learned in temple schools, through apprenticeships,
or at home. Boys received a formal education, but girls
had to learn to read and write at home.
Teachers
were strict. The harshness of their methods can perhaps
be inferred from the Egyptian verb seba, which means both
“to teach” and “to beat.” Scribes learned first how to read,
write, and compose letters. Those studying to become scribes
had to recopy and memorize model letters as well as other
types of texts, such as literary works. Some schoolboy copies
with the instructor's corrections of his pupil's work still
survive today. Instructional papyri (scrolls made of papyrus)
in subjects such as mathematics and medicine have been discovered.
All types of manuscripts tended to be stored in a “house
of life,” a repository found in most temples. These repositories
were somewhat similar to modern libraries.
Learned
people in ancient Egypt studied mathematics and medicine.
In mathematics they developed basic concepts in arithmetic
and geometry. The ancient Egyptians understood the idea
of fractions and knew how to add them. Egyptian scholars
wrote some of the earliest known medical texts. These texts
deal with topics such as internal medicine, surgery, pharmaceutical
remedies, dentistry, and veterinary medicine.
Scribes
were essential to all aspects of ancient Egyptian civilization.
They kept all records and wrote all correspondence. They
copied and edited all religious and literary texts. They
even compiled economic reports.
The
Egyptians used several scripts to record their language.
Around 3300 to 3200 BC, a formal script known as hieroglyphs
came into being. The word hieroglyphs comes from the Greek
term hieroglyphikos, meaning “sacred carving.” In this script,
symbols called glyphs were used originally to denote objects
and concepts. Eventually the symbols came to represent primarily
sounds. Hieroglyphs took the form of recognizable images
drawn from the Egyptian environment. Some of the earliest
examples of writing in Egypt appear to be names and also
the number and origin of certain commodities. Generally,
in the time of the pharaohs, the Egyptians used hieroglyphs
to carve or paint monumental and religious texts on the
walls of tombs, palaces, and temples, as well as on the
surfaces of statues and stelae (carved stone slabs, sometimes
painted wooden slabs). Hieroglyphs were the longest-lived
system of writing, being used until the end of the 4th century
AD.
A
second script, called hieratic, was based on hieroglyphs
but was simplified and more abbreviated. The hieratic script
was adapted to the more rapid writing necessary to prepare
letters and legal and administrative documents. For the
most part, these documents were written in ink on papyri,
as were literary, instructional, funerary, and mythological
texts. The hieratic script was used until a more cursive
script, called demotic, or “popular,” supplanted it in the
7th century BC. The demotic script was used at first to
keep the more mundane records of daily life, but later it
was used for everything, including monumental inscriptions.
It survived hieroglyphs by a century. The last script the
Egyptians developed was the Coptic alphabet, which dates
to the early 2nd century AD. The term Coptic is derived
from the Greek word for Egypt. Unlike its predecessors,
which were partially alphabetical and recorded only the
sounds of consonants, the Coptic script was a true alphabet
and included vowels. It used the 24 letters of the Greek
alphabet plus 6 additional characters derived from demotic
for sounds that did not exist in Greek.
The
Egyptians created a calendar at a very early stage, based
on their observations of the movements of the
Sun and the stars.
They used their calendar for many purposes, including the
recording of historical events and royal decrees and the
scheduling of festivals and other activities.
Perhaps
representing one of the first attempts at making a calendar
are the remnants of stone circles from around 8000 BC in
the southwestern corner of modern Egypt. These stone circles
may have been used to map the movement of the heavenly bodies.
The Egyptians probably created a calendar because it was
so important for their survival to know when the Nile's
flood would come.
They
divided each day into 24 hours, 12 for the daytime and 12
for the night. A period of ten days made up a week, and
one month included three such weeks, or 30 days. A year
comprised 12 months and was divided into three seasons of
four months each. To the 360 days of the 12 months in a
year, the Egyptians added 5 more days, which they referred
to as the birthdays of several gods. Thus, an Egyptian year
totaled 365 days, remarkably close to the 365¼ days it takes
the Earth to go around the Sun. There was no concept of
leap year (accounting for the extra ¼ day a year), so the
calendar fell behind by one day every four years.
E.
Religion and the Afterlife
Excavations
of ancient settlements have uncovered traces of religious
practices and beliefs in Egypt from as early as 6000 BC.
Some sites near the modern border between Egypt and Sudan
include areas that were devoted to rituals and festivals,
as well as sections for burials. Little is known about the
early religious practices and beliefs. Graves of cattle
have been found, indicating some degree of veneration of
those animals. Human graves dating to Predynastic times
include artifacts, weapons, vessels, and other materials.
The inclusion of these objects in graves indicates a belief
in some type of afterlife during which the items would be
put to use.
By
the time Egypt was unified, the early religious practices
had developed into a formal religion involving the worship
of many gods and goddesses. The environment played a significant
role in shaping the nature of the deities the Egyptians
worshiped. Their gods and goddesses took the form of humans,
animals, or combinations of humans and animals. These forms
represented the forces of nature and the elements of the
Egyptians' physical world. By picturing the natural powers
as recognizable entities and creating mythological
stories about them, the Egyptians tried to reach an
understanding of the complicated interactions within their
universe.
The
deities of ancient Egypt can be organized into several groups,
but the boundaries are not fixed, and some deities may belong
to several groups.
Many
of these deities were also part of myths of creation, of
which there are several versions. Each story has a primary
deity, such as Amun, Ptah,
Atum, or Khnum,
as well as several lesser divinities. Amon and Ra became
combined into a composite form, Amon-Ra.
As king of the gods, Amon-Ra was revered on a national basis.
A few other deities also attained this status. Most, however,
had a local origin and were worshiped only in the provincial
area where they originated.
The
concept of order and balance, Maat,
had as its counterpart Seth, who
personified chaos and disorder.
A large
group, including Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, Selket, Anubis,
and Thoth, fell into the class of
funerary deities, who figured prominently in funerary rituals.
In addition, on a more individual level, there were local,
personal, and household gods, and even patron deities for
certain professions. Deities of foreign origin were sometimes
included among the Egyptian gods. See also Egyptian
Mythology.
Statues
and other images of the deities represented the abstract
powers of the gods in concrete form. The ancient Egyptians
believed that their gods occasionally resided in the statues.
They maintained that the essence of a god could inhabit
a statue and then a ritual could complete the process of
animating the image. Such a ritual would include recitation
of sacred text and all sorts of attention paid to the statue,
such as cleansing, dressing, feeding, and anointing.
In
the temple the king was in theory the high priest. In practice,
his participation in temple rituals occurred primarily on
specific festivals, while the priests performed the daily
obligations at other times. Ordinary people had immediate
access to their personal gods, but they could not enter
the temple at will. However, many Egyptians served as lay
priests in the temple when they were not working in the
fields. During their service as lay priests, they could
enter certain areas of the temple. On some holidays, such
as the Feast of the Valley, a portable shrine housing the
image of a deity was paraded around outside the confines
of the temple at Thebes. The people could then express their
piety.
Religion
permeated life in ancient Egypt. Many of the daily activities
of the people related in some way to their beliefs. The
afterlife and preparations for it are a good example. To
achieve eternal life after death, an individual had to do
many things while he or she existed in this world. One of
the most important was to live a just and moral life. In
addition, some practical preparations were necessary, including
making and furnishing a tomb, providing appropriate tomb
decorations and texts, and establishing a mortuary cult
to guarantee perpetual care and offerings. After death,
the individual had to be carefully preserved as a mummy.
Mummification
was a process performed by an embalmer, who would carefully
remove the internal organs, subject the body to different
ointments and resins, dry it out with salts, and then wrap
it with linen. Amulets,
or charms, were often interspersed among the layers of linen,
and other amulets might be placed in the coffin along with
the mummy. Magical texts were sometimes written on the wrappings
themselves, and they could also be written on papyri or
inscribed on the walls of the coffin or of the tomb. These
texts served as protection and as a guide for the deceased
on the way to and in the afterlife.
F.
Arts
The
ancient Egyptians produced a large body of creative works
in areas such as music, literature, painting, sculpture,
drama, and architecture. Often the purpose of their artistic
output was not recreation or cultural enrichment, but the
communication of some sort of message or theme
Religion,
which was extremely important in Egyptian thought, society,
and life, had a great influence on the arts. For example,
biographical texts that appear on the walls of funerary
chapels make up an interesting body of literature. Their
main purpose was to reaffirm the accomplishments and moral
character of the deceased, so that he or she would pass
successfully to the afterlife. On another level, these texts
indirectly provide information about the activities of the
pharaoh, since they often refer to the deceased's role in
relation to the ruler.
Paintings,
carvings, and other representations of figures in two dimensions
appear on the walls of temples, tombs, coffins, and sarcophagi,
as well as on papyri, textiles, and cartonnage (form-fitting
coffins made of a papier-mâché-like substance). By convention,
the artists portrayed the most characteristic features of
the individual in one harmonious image. The resulting representations
could then function on many levels simultaneously. For example,
the typical depiction of a tomb owner was meant to portray
that individual outside the limits of both time and space—an
image for eternity. This representation might also relate
to the hieroglyphs that accompany it, and it may even be
an integral part of the text.
Sculptures
served a variety of purposes. Carved statues of deities
were worshiped in temples. The actual worship took place
after appropriate rituals were completed. The rituals were
believed to animate the image and insure that the deity
had taken up residence in the statue. Statues of royal persons
and ordinary people were also produced. The ancient Egyptians
believed that these statues, too, could serve occasionally
as residences for the personality of the individual after
death. Sometimes, such a figure represented the final hieroglyph
of the individual's name, which would be carved on the side
or base of the statue. The ancient Egyptians also placed
statues of themselves in temples as a demonstration of their
piety. They also put figurines in human form, called shabtis,
in tombs to be substitutes for the tomb owner when he or
she was called to perform labor in the afterlife. Other
statues placed in tombs were meant to be residences for
an aspect of the deceased's personality in case of damage
to the mummy
The
pyramids are the best-known examples of Egyptian
architecture. These huge tombs have four triangular sides
that meet in a point at the top. To the ancient Egyptians
they might have represented the primeval mound that was
the origin of life in their creation myths or they might
have represented the solidified rays of the Sun. The Egyptians
built more than 100 pyramids as final resting places for
their rulers.
Egyptian
temples were rectangular in shape and intended to be oriented
in an east-west direction, that is, in line with the rising
and setting of the Sun. In temple architecture, a huge gateway
called a pylon stood at the entrance to the temple area
and led into an open court. The pylon often took the form
of the hieroglyph for the word horizon, a character in which
the disk of the sun appears over a design representing the
physical horizon. When the Sun rose in the morning and passed
over the entrance to the temple, the resulting image reproduced
the hieroglyph, symbolizing that the gateway was indeed
the horizon. To the Egyptians, the temple, a structure built
by humans, could be a cosmic environment fit for the gods.
Carved
and brightly painted scenes adorned the walls of temples
and tombs. Some of the representations showed the interaction
of the kings and gods. Others depicted symbolic scenes that
related to the cosmos or the afterlife. Painted decoration
was also used on household items such as pottery vessels
and furniture, and it was often applied to the interior
walls of houses.
The
ancient Egyptians wrote various kinds of literature. These
included epic stories about wandering heroes, tales of pharaohs
and magicians, wisdom literature that advised proper behavior
(selections from which are the ancestors of some biblical
proverbs), and comic stories about their deities. They wrote
political propaganda, satire, and what may have been the
world's first fairy tale. They also crafted love poetry
that is beautifully evocative and meant to express the feelings
of two individuals toward each other. Their dramas were
primarily associated with religious literature and rituals.
Performances apparently accompanied some burials. In addition,
performers reenacted, in the temple, battles between the
gods Horus and Seth that related to the royal succession.
No
written music survives from ancient Egypt, but musical instruments
were included in several burials, and musicians accompanying
ritual dancers are often depicted on the walls of tombs
and some temples. Some scenes of musicians and dancers represent
entertainment at parties, while others portray religious
activity. Musical instruments used in ancient Egypt include
trumpets, flutes, harps, and various percussion instruments.
Many
types of artifacts from ancient Egypt were not created for
religious purposes. For example, in the category of minor
arts, the Egyptians manufactured exquisite jewelry, cosmetic
dishes, utensils, dishes, containers, furniture, and other
objects. The beauty of these items seems to have been dictated
by the ability of the artisan and the desire and perhaps
wealth of the purchaser. Faience, an inexpensive nonclay
ceramic material with a glaze made from quartz, was used
in pottery, tiles, jewelry, and amulets.
Works
of art were generally unsigned, but the names of particular
artists are known because many texts record a title, such
as line draftsman (one who draws the outlines of images
to be painted or sculpted), sculptor, architect, or musician,
before the name of a particular person. Two of the most
important architects known are Imhotep,
who designed Djoser's Step Pyramid, and Senenmut,
who conceived the mortuary temple for the female pharaoh
Hatshepsut. The royal temples, palaces, and tombs were state-sponsored
projects involving several hundred anonymous artisans. Carving
the reliefs on the walls of most structures was apparently
a group effort, but certain areas of the decoration may
reveal the distinctive style of a particular artist. The
royal workshops often set the standards for statues, reliefs,
and paintings created for others among the elite.
V.
Government
In
ancient Egypt, the king was the supreme ruler of the country
and was also the highest-level spiritual leader, representing
humankind's link to the gods. Under him in the government
were the vizier, or chief minister, and many bureaucratic
officials. Below him in the religious leadership were the
high priest, other priests, and the lower ranks of the temple
bureaucracy.
The
Egyptian kings realized early on that they had to organize
an efficient system of government. It was clear that first
and foremost they had to create an administration to oversee
and control activity associated with the annual flood of
the Nile. The system had to be under royal control in order
to guarantee the fair and proper distribution of the water
and fertile land. This royal direction set the standard
for other enterprises and industries. With such a system
of administration in place, the king could also plan, implement,
and complete state-sponsored building projects, such as
the national temples and royal burial complexes. He could
arrange for and undertake expeditions, for military purposes
and for mining, quarrying, and trade, to countries at or
beyond Egypt's borders. Without proper control of an ever-increasing
bureaucracy or with poor management at any level of the
system, problems could develop quickly. For example, papyri
record work stoppages and laborer complaints resulting from
inadequate food rations and clothing distribution.
The
king was the commander in chief of Egypt's army and navy,
and he decided when and how the country's borders were to
be protected or expanded. Texts record both naval and land
battles. Often, several divisions of troops composed of
infantry, archers, and cavalry participated in battles.
A hierarchy existed within the ranks. It consisted of different
levels of officers and administrators for the different
units of soldiers and sailors. At certain times the Egyptians
hired mercenaries, or warriors who were recruited for pay,
from outside the borders of Egypt
Among
the domains that the government managed were the economy,
the administration, both religious (the temples) and nonreligious
(secular), and the adjudication of many types of disputes
and other legal issues. At the head of each division was
a high official, under whom were middle-level and low-level
officials. Each department ultimately answered to the king.
Ordinarily,
the office of king passed from father to son. On occasion,
this rule was broken, as when no male heir survived. For
example, in 1319 BC, at the end of the 18th Dynasty,
a nonroyal general, Horemheb, became pharaoh, as
the king came to be called during the 18th Dynasty. Another
military figure, Ramses I, also not of royal blood,
succeeded him to the throne and began the 19th Dynasty.
Rarely
did a woman rule, but as the 6th, 12th, and 19th dynasties
ended, a female ruler took control as sole monarch. The
female pharaoh Hatshepsut, of the 18th Dynasty, came
to the throne in a different manner. Not long after her
husband, Thutmose II, died in 1479 BC, she proclaimed
herself pharaoh and ruled as senior monarch with Thutmose
III, the designated male heir (and son of a minor royal
wife), as her junior partner
The
Egyptians believed that the office of king was divine. They
considered the reigning king a god, by virtue of his coronation
and related rituals of office. At his death, his burial
and the associated ceremonies ensured that he would remain
a god forever and would be identified with both Re, the
sun god, and Osiris, the ruler of the realm of the dead.
As the ruling monarch, the king was identified with the
god Horus, a sky deity believed to be the son of Osiris,
who avenged Osiris's murder and then succeeded him to the
throne.
He
was referred to as the Lord of the Two Lands and the King
of Upper and Lower Egypt. (Lower Egypt referred to the Nile
Delta area, while Upper Egypt referred to the Nile Valley
to the south.) In inscribed, painted, and carved texts,
these titles often come before the king's coronation name,
one of the five names he possessed. Another of his names
was his personal name, which generally followed his coronation
name. These two names appear enclosed within an oval “rope,”
known today as a cartouche. The other three names conferred
on a pharaoh related to his divinity.
The
modern term pharaoh comes from the ancient Egyptian phrase
per aa, which literally means "great house." Although it
originally was a designation of the royal palace, it came
to indicate the king himself beginning with the 18th Dynasty.
Under
the king as head of state was the office of vizier, or chief
minister. The vizier ran all aspects of the government on
behalf of the king. He controlled the courts, the treasury,
and the administration. However, at any time the king could
exert his own control over any aspect of government. It
is uncertain whether more than one vizier held office at
a time in the earlier periods, but later texts clearly indicate
two official viziers, one for Upper Egypt and one for Lower
Egypt. Government officials could often rise in rank, as
indicated in their tomb biographies, but many offices were
hereditary. Lesser administrators controlled provincial
areas now referred to as nomes, and these offices traditionally
were passed on within families. While government service
clearly occupied a major portion of the time of high officials,
these men also administered their own land. In addition,
many local administrators served part-time in the priesthood.
VI.
Economy
Ancient
Egypt's economy was based on agriculture, and the rich bounty
of its farmers depended on the Nile. In addition, the river's
waters and marshes were a source of fish and fowl, important
parts of the ancient Egyptians' diet. The fertile soil left
by the Nile's yearly receding floodwaters provided the means
for growing a wide variety of grains, vegetables, and fruits.
Two of the most important crops, emmer (a type of wheat)
and barley, were used to make bread and beer, the staples
of the diet. After the crops were harvested, the same fields
served as grazing areas for herds of cattle, sheep, and
other animals, which in turn served as sources of meat and
dairy products.
Farming
the fields, tending livestock, hunting wildlife, and similar
agrarian activities were the main duties of the majority
of Egypt's lower classes. These people used simple tools,
such as hoes, sickles, threshers, winnowing fans, forks,
and baskets. Laborers tilled the soil by their own efforts
or used plows drawn by cattle or oxen. In addition to this
agrarian work, the Egyptians developed associated industries,
such as beer and wine making, textile production, leather
tanning, woodworking, pottery making, and baking. A portion
of the crops and animal products that the farmers produced
served as the raw materials for some of these industries.
A portion of all the goods produced was used for bartering
in the marketplace, as there was no monetary system. Taxes
consumed a large share of the total production.
Much
of the land was under the control of the throne or the temple,
but private ownership also existed. Farmers who did not
own land could lease private land, working the fields and
keeping part of what they produced. Because so much depended
on the Nile's annual flood, the Egyptians sought to control
as much of it as they could by constructing dikes, maintaining
high walls, and digging irrigation channels. They also developed
a simple mechanism to lift small amounts of water out of
the channels and onto the fields. That device, called a
shadoof, consists of a bucket set at one end of a counterweighted
pole. It is still used today.
Despite
all their efforts to control the annual flood, the ancient
Egyptians could not prevent problems. An inundation that
was too high could result in damaging floodwaters. One that
was too low might not provide sufficient water for irrigation.
The
ancient Egyptians had other natural resources besides the
Nile. The country was rich in a wide variety of minerals,
which the people learned to exploit early. They mined gold
and copper and established a metalworking industry that
produced jewelry, vessels, statues, weapons, and tools,
among other objects. They learned to make bronze in around
1500 BC, but evidence for iron smelting does not appear
before the 6th century BC.
They quarried many types of stone, including limestone,
calcite, granite, and diorite. The stoneworkers used bronze
tools and hard pounding stones in the quarrying process.
Stone quarrying provided the raw material for architectural
projects, statues, sarcophagi, and vessels. Minerals such
as galena, natron, and feldspar were also mined, as were
carnelian, malachite, amethyst, and other semiprecious gemstones.
Some of these minerals were used for jewelry and decorative
purposes, and others were used for cosmetic and funerary
preparations.
The
demand for various types of wood for furniture, coffins,
statues, and architectural components exceeded what was
available in Egypt. As a result, wood, along with oils and
certain manufactured items, was among the materials for
which the Egyptians traded their emmer, gold, natron, produce,
and other natural resources. The Egyptians carried on trade
with the Nubians and with many of the peoples of southwestern
Asia, including those of Canaan, Syria, and Mesopotamia.
return
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3
(for
more reading about the Kings & Pharaos, Pyramids, etc,
please visit the Encarta
site!)
Contributed
By: David Peter Silverman, Ph.D. Associate Professor of
Egyptology and Associate Curator, Egyptian Section, University
Museum, University of Pennsylvania. Author of Masterpieces
of Tutankhamun and other books. Contributor to Journal of
Egyptian Archeology and other publications.
"Ancient
Egypt," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.com
© 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
